Q&A: Sochi’s Olympics Chief on the 2014 Winter Games

It's still balmy in London, but Dmitry Chernyshenko, the president and chief executive of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has ice and snow on his mind. Here he talks to TIME about the preparations for the Sochi Games.

It’s still balmy in London, but Dmitry Chernyshenko has ice and snow on his mind. Chernyshenko, the president and chief executive of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has been in London observing the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the stands and behind-the-scenes, hoping to glean insight on everything from security to logistics. He recently spoke with TIME about Sochi’s Olympic preparations.

Everybody recognizes that the modern Olympic Games are the most recognized and successful non-commercial brand in the world. It’s also the greatest catalyst to accelerate positive change and development. It’s like a miracle button. It speeds up processes that would [otherwise] take decades. With the Olympics deadlines are certain and commitments are strong. It’s like buying happy tickets to the future. We’re creating a new city in Sochi for about 100,000 inhabitants in just years. It’s incredible.

Are you also helping to burnish Russia’s international image?

Of course. [The Olympics] is a showcase. It’s a display of the new, modern Russia. We are developing awareness that Russia has changed a lot, and that we are democratic, we are friendly, we are transparent, and we are welcoming the world to Sochi in 2014.

You’re a Sochi native. What do locals think about hosting the Games?

They’re very patient. It may be the biggest construction site in the world right now. We now have more than 55,000 workers working 24/7, so of course it’s very noisy for the local inhabitants. But they see the results. They see the new construction, new roads, new hotels, and they respect the situation. Very soon we will do some fine-tuning, roll out the grass and receive the world, and they will enjoy one of the most beautiful cities in our country.

Around 70% of all athletes will live within a five-minute walk of their venues in Sochi. How did you manage that?

We had a natural advantage when we were bidding for the Games: we were building everything from scratch, like a painter using a blank canvas to paint a masterpiece.

Before construction started, what was the area like that now houses the Olympic Park?

It was just a wasteland—an empty field. We brought in experts from all around the world—and some of them were in charge of designing the Olympic Park in London—to create the dream project, where the environment would be convenient for the needs of the Olympic Games. The airport is perfectly located just 7km (4.3 miles) from the Olympic Park. It’s closer than from the downtown of London to its Olympic Park.

What about the Olympic Stadium?

We are constructing a purpose-built central stadium that will have some special technical features that will allow us to impress the world. I will wait for a while to reveal that, but we will use the natural environment of course. The stadium is right on the shore of the Black Sea, and the mountains are nearby. The climate is very mild—nobody will be frozen in the stadium. Hopefully it will be about 10 degrees Celsius [50 degrees Fahrenheit].

What will happen to all these new venues after the Games?

We’re not creating white elephants. Some of the venues will be dismantled and then moved to other regions of Russia. Others will be converted for different purposes. For example, we don’t need such a huge amount of indoor ice in one place, obviously, and the figure skating palace has a capacity of 12,000. It will be converted into a velodrome, while the speed skating center will be converted into a shopping mall and convention center. This is a very well thought out, solid legacy plan for the region. Sochi will be like Cannes and Davos put together.

Do you hope this will boost tourism in the long run?

We are building 21,000 new hotel rooms, operated by an international chain that will serve our clients for the Games. But after the Games it will be a great inventory for guests. There is a nice climate with palm trees. You can ski and swim in less than half an hour. We have a railway delivering up to 20,000 passengers an hour, so it’s an unbeatable combination to create a destination for festivals, conferences, conventions, exhibitions and, of course, sport competitions, because it will be both a winter and a summer sport destination. We can even compete for the next Summer Games!

What about the intangible legacy of the Games?

It’s a shame, frankly, that before Russia started its Olympic journey in 2007, when we won the race to host the Games, that a culture of volunteerism didn’t exist in our culture. But we have opened volunteer centers all across Russia. It’s created a huge boost for the volunteer movement even prior to the Games. We need just 25,000 volunteers but we’ve already had about 100,000 people who’ve already passed through the process of filling out the application, so we have to select the cream of the cream, the most talented, the most dedicated, who deserve to represent the new face of new, modern Russia in 2014.

Is there a specific lesson you’ve learned from the various Olympic Games you’ve attended that is particularly important?

Yes. You might be perfect at organizing and handling the event, but without a national team on the podium, the Games will hardly be perceived as successful.

Doesn’t Russia usually do well at the Olympics?

Not in the Winter Olympics. That’s a big challenge. We lost in Vancouver dramatically. We were in ninth position on the medals table. Ministers for sport and the National Olympic Committee are doing their utmost to create the dream team, which will conquer the podium.

One highlight of London 2012 was the 8,000-mile torch relay around Britain. Russia is a lot bigger than the U.K. Will the flame travel across the entire country?

We’re breaking the record, and our domestic torch relay will be the longest in the history of the modern Olympic Games. It will cover all nine time zones in 123 days. It will be the biggest not just in terms of distance, but also in terms of importance. It will unite the nation and help us discover Russia for ourselves because, frankly, since the Soviet Union collapsed, we don’t know a lot about our own regions. It will be broadcast live to demonstrate the modern achievements of the regions.

The Olympic Games in Olympia had started as an ancient Greek festival with athletic, mythical, and musical competitions, held at Olympia in Greece periodically, traditionally from 776 B.C. until abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 393 A.D.

The ancient Olympics were based on a philosophy of balance between physical/athletic and spiritual/moral development that was a cornerstone of Greek democracy

Originally there was only one race, a sprint, and the prize for the winner was an olive wreath. As time went on, other races were added, as were other sports, including boxing and wrestling. Among the more unusual events were the race in armor and the apene race, in which a chariot was pulled not by horses, but by mules. Prizes became more elaborate, and there were even suspicions and/or reports of cases of bribery, corruption and boycotts.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been founded in 1894 by French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, had become since then the administrative mechanism of the Olympic Movement, in accordance with so-called Olympic Charter, which had generated during the 20th and 21st centuries, until it shaped the alternating summer and winter games at two- year intervals, beside other creative activities. World Wars led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games.

Russian and international companies such as Volkswagen Group, and Coca-Cola sponsoring of Russian planned 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, irrespective of the importance of Sochi as the last bastions of resistance in the Circassian resistance to Tsarist Russian invasion, and the genocide suffered by the Circassian nation.

The IOC is morally obliged and for human dignity considerations to revise the decision of holding Olympic games on our ancestors’ bones and graves, otherwise, that will be well thought-out as a diversion from the principles, ethics and objectives of the Olympics and deliberate negligence and carelessness in collaboration with the so-called host-state, which is deviating from its own proclaimed constitutional rights towards an indigenous nation that suffered and still on the way to restore confiscated human rights, bearing in mind that The IOC ignored completely, the call of residents of 12 subjects of the Russian Federation which was addressed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requesting not to allow erection of Olympic objects in the Grushevy Ridge and within buffer zone of the Caucasian Reserve!

It is based on the fundamentals and principles mentioned in the Olympic Charter, Chapter 1, The Olympic Movement and its Actions: Mission and Role of the IOC):

• The goal of Olympics is to situate sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

• To encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sport and require that the Olympic Games are held accordingly.

• To promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the Host cities and the Host countries.The IOC policy also finds its roots and scope in the Olympic Movement’s agenda 21 which is another major reference document in this field.

• To cooperate with the competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace;

The Olympic Paralympic Values are: respect, excellence and friendship, which they are based on: courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

The Circassian Homeland

Circassia is located in the historical region of the Northwestern part of the Caucasus Mountains, on the Northeastern coastline of the Black Sea. After the end of 101 years of invasion and prolonged Russian-Circassian war (the Caucasus War in official Russian terminology) which was waged by Tsarist Russia, Circassia was totally occupied in 21, May, 1864. The Circassians were the genuine inhabitants of the Northwestern Caucasus for more than 6000 years, and their existence is confirmed in the area since the earliest Agriculture and the beginning of Metal Tool-making age, which consisted of 12 tribes that are represented on their green flag by twelve golden stars beside three crossed arrows that symbolize union and peace. They were commonly called Circassians or Cherkess which was designated by the Greeks, Turks or Russians; but their self-designation name and language is Adygha.

Since untimely historical records, the ancient native inhabitants of the Northwest Caucasus were known in most historical annals as the Circassians that existed in Circassia. The Circassian nation had suffered of war disastrous consequences that included and not limited to destruction, annihilation, displacement and deportation which are elements of Mass-genocide. During the war Circassia was subjected to devastation, sanctions, total and strict blockade and eventually total occupation, which consequently resulted in famine, spread of epidemics and exposure of the remaining alive inhabitants to severe and extreme conditions

According to Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in EARLY HISTORY of HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: “The formation of the Circassian people over the millennia had taken place in close contact with the tribes of Western Asia, Greeks, Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sumarians. The main Circassian settlements were located in the northwestern foothills and plains of the lower reaches of the Kuban and on the east coast of the Black Sea from the mouth of the Don to Abkhazia. Circassian society of that time can be described as early feudal, and farming was the leading economic sector. Cattle and horse-breeding, fishing, and crafts were well developed. The celebrated Silk Route passed through the territory of historical Cherkessia (Circassia), as shown by various archaeological finds. The Circassians first emerged as a coherent entity somewhere around the tenth century A.D., although references to them exist much earlier.”

The Circassians had managed through thousands of years of their active existence to stay independent of others. The main political units were clans and territorial communities similar to the ancient Greeks and Romans or the Iroquois confederation. Adygha societies in the sense of communities were elaborately subdivided into the ranks of princes and many other classifications.

“The stratified and militaristic society of the Circassians prevented them from being conquered for thousands of years. In the west, the lands of Circassians were washed by the extremely treacherous waters of the Black Sea, where sailing ships could navigate only for several months during the year. The coast had few good harbors and many malarial swamps”. Various Sharia laws started to be followed by some of the Circassians in the 19th century, while others followed the Khabza (their own laws).

Circassians had always considered defending their homeland as one of their top priority obligations, beside their commitment toward blood feud. All Circassian communities were at certain stage ruled by princes, but in the 17th through 19th centuries the Shapsugh and Natukhwai tribes along the Black Sea coastline had rebelled against their princes and expelled all aristocrats in a series of dramatic revolutions. These democratic Circassians were since then ruled by regular meetings of all citizens that usually took place in sacred groves. The meetings determined communal affairs and elected various magistrates. During wartime, Circassians elected temporary war leaders and formed highly disciplined detachments of young men. All free commoners used to purchase their own weaponry and master their utilization.

In the year 1763, the Tsarist Russian Empire had started its, the longest war in Russian history against Circassians, in order to expand its boundaries into the Black Sea coast-line and ports on the territory of what used to be called Circassia, accomplishing its long-time dream of reaching then controlling the warm waters, Russian Tsarist invading forces and hordes had reached their numbers at critical times to more than one million troops of army soldiers and mercenaries. Circassians had to face disastrous consequences and were subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing that killed half of the Circassian people, in which facts and discreet studies have concluded that the outcome of what had happened to the Circassian nation was a typical genocide.

The Russian occupying authorities had started coordinating the change of the status and nature of the population that led to reflect a demographic reality of the region by deporting the Circassian inhabitants away from their original areas, either to regions beyond the Kuban River or to the Ottoman Empire through coordination between the governments of the Russian and Ottoman Empires. Cossack, Russian and other settlers from different origins were brought in to the area to resettle and replace the original oppressed people that had been either perished or deported.

2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games

Selecting Sochi for the 2014 winter Olympic Games (the most expensive in history) got impact on circumstances with different dimensions, which can be described as the following:

*Circassian national and human concerns are directly connected with the indigenous peoples’ rights and dignity both on the state and world’s levels. That includes the importance of Sochi being the last capital city of Circassia when Circassia and the North Caucasus were totally occupied in 21, May, 1864, in addition to the mass-graves and graveyards of Circassians who resisted the invaders particularly in Krasnaya Polyana site, which is developed to be a tourists’ resort!

*The breach and violation by Russian authorities against world heritage and UNESCO protected sites and forests, which was reported in February of the current year that “Russia Allows Ski Resort in Caucasus World Heritage Site” and pinpoints: “The Russian government is preparing to allow construction of a cluster of ski resorts and roads in the Caucasus region that will alter one of Europe’s few untouched mountain wilderness areas. The development is expected to impact two biosphere nature reserves, two national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and a World Heritage Site.”

* The environmental and ecological damage produced by the industrial toxics and chemical waste originating from the construction works of the Olympic facilities, roads and associated services is beyond repair in such a unique and fascinating natural beauty of Sochi and its surroundings. Environmental activists and “Greenpeace Russia” indicated worries that there is a dangerous increase of concentration of high-risk of toxic elements such as arsenic, phenol and a number of oil derivatives. The environmentalists say “pollution levels have risen dramatically around Sochi since the city was selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.”

A Russian blog in the name of La Russophobe had posted an editorial in March, 2010 in the title of: The Sochi 2014 Madness Must End Now! It criticized the whole Sochi process and mentioned “Russia is recklessly destroying the regional ecology to build the Olympics venues. The United Nations has just issued a scathing report condemning Russian atrocities against the natural environment, and the IOC is now being forced to investigate.”, then added: “allowing Russia to build the Olympic venues in Sochi will do irreversible environmental harm to Sochi. The invaluable Paul Goble documents that harm in today’s issue, and Russian environmentalists on the front lines confirm that the Kremlin is butchering the natural world on the Black Sea coast in order to build venues of absolutely no value to ordinary Russians, at horrifying expense.”

A blog in the name of “Sochi Watch” had posted in May, 2011, a summary of the “current ecological situation in Sochi, from an AFP article I caught on vancouversun.com. Essentially, it covers the basics: that Russia is saying the gargantuan building project to prepare Sochi is “70%” finished and that this will be the “greenest” Olympics ever vs the Ecological Watch on North Caucasus saying that that ain’t exactly the case.” “In general, environmental damage in Sochi is much worse than what we expected in the early stages of construction planning,” said Suren Gazaryan of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus.

No Sochi Committee had published its 14 Reasons for Opposing Sochi 2014 in five languages; explain many worries in regard to holding Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

To end my presentation I would like to read scripts extracted from one of the recently translated documents obtained from the Russian achieves, which were sent to the European Parliament in the year 2006, requesting the recognition of the Circassian Genocide:

*From memoranda of Colonel Charak Feb,, 14th 1864:

I remember how our troops led by General Babic approaching like locusts in the first days of great summer from the beautiful Mountaineers land, and their dense crops – wheat, barley, millet and peaks – flatten under the feet of soldiers, horses and guns, and the villages scattered around us were burning, and the smoke makes the leaves of the surrounding woods formed recently turn to unmoral brown color”.

*Message from Q. Gyeman on February, 13, 1864: “… Abadzykh people naked and poor are turning towards Tuapse, and will constitute a significant burden to us, the fear of the spread of fever or other infectious diseases among them. We treat them in a barbarian way actually, but we have no other way people are amazingly stupid”.

The Olympic Games in Olympia had started as an ancient Greek festival with athletic, mythical, and musical competitions, held at Olympia in Greece periodically, traditionally from 776 B.C. until abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 393 A.D.

The ancient Olympics were based on a philosophy of balance between physical/athletic and spiritual/moral development that was a cornerstone of Greek democracy

Originally there was only one race, a sprint, and the prize for the winner was an olive wreath. As time went on, other races were added, as were other sports, including boxing and wrestling. Among the more unusual events were the race in armor and the apene race, in which a chariot was pulled not by horses, but by mules. Prizes became more elaborate, and there were even suspicions and/or reports of cases of bribery, corruption and boycotts.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been founded in 1894 by French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, had become since then the administrative mechanism of the Olympic Movement, in accordance with so-called Olympic Charter, which had generated during the 20th and 21st centuries, until it shaped the alternating summer and winter games at two- year intervals, beside other creative activities. World Wars led to the cancellation of the 1916, 1940, and 1944 Games.

Russian and international companies such as Volkswagen Group, and Coca-Cola sponsoring of Russian planned 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, irrespective of the importance of Sochi as the last bastions of resistance in the Circassian resistance to Tsarist Russian invasion, and the genocide suffered by the Circassian nation.

The IOC is morally obliged and for human dignity considerations to revise the decision of holding Olympic games on our ancestors’ bones and graves, otherwise, that will be well thought-out as a diversion from the principles, ethics and objectives of the Olympics and deliberate negligence and carelessness in collaboration with the so-called host-state, which is deviating from its own proclaimed constitutional rights towards an indigenous nation that suffered and still on the way to restore confiscated human rights, bearing in mind that The IOC ignored completely, the call of residents of 12 subjects of the Russian Federation which was addressed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) requesting not to allow erection of Olympic objects in the Grushevy Ridge and within buffer zone of the Caucasian Reserve!

It is based on the fundamentals and principles mentioned in the Olympic Charter, Chapter 1, The Olympic Movement and its Actions: Mission and Role of the IOC):

• The goal of Olympics is to situate sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

• To encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sport and require that the Olympic Games are held accordingly.

• To promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the Host cities and the Host countries.The IOC policy also finds its roots and scope in the Olympic Movement’s agenda 21 which is another major reference document in this field.

• To cooperate with the competent public or private organizations and authorities in the endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace;

The Olympic Paralympic Values are: respect, excellence and friendship, which they are based on: courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

The Circassian Homeland

Circassia is located in the historical region of the Northwestern part of the Caucasus Mountains, on the Northeastern coastline of the Black Sea. After the end of 101 years of invasion and prolonged Russian-Circassian war (the Caucasus War in official Russian terminology) which was waged by Tsarist Russia, Circassia was totally occupied in 21, May, 1864. The Circassians were the genuine inhabitants of the Northwestern Caucasus for more than 6000 years, and their existence is confirmed in the area since the earliest Agriculture and the beginning of Metal Tool-making age, which consisted of 12 tribes that are represented on their green flag by twelve golden stars beside three crossed arrows that symbolize union and peace. They were commonly called Circassians or Cherkess which was designated by the Greeks, Turks or Russians; but their self-designation name and language is Adygha.

Since untimely historical records, the ancient native inhabitants of the Northwest Caucasus were known in most historical annals as the Circassians that existed in Circassia. The Circassian nation had suffered of war disastrous consequences that included and not limited to destruction, annihilation, displacement and deportation which are elements of Mass-genocide. During the war Circassia was subjected to devastation, sanctions, total and strict blockade and eventually total occupation, which consequently resulted in famine, spread of epidemics and exposure of the remaining alive inhabitants to severe and extreme conditions

According to Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in EARLY HISTORY of HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: “The formation of the Circassian people over the millennia had taken place in close contact with the tribes of Western Asia, Greeks, Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sumarians. The main Circassian settlements were located in the northwestern foothills and plains of the lower reaches of the Kuban and on the east coast of the Black Sea from the mouth of the Don to Abkhazia. Circassian society of that time can be described as early feudal, and farming was the leading economic sector. Cattle and horse-breeding, fishing, and crafts were well developed. The celebrated Silk Route passed through the territory of historical Cherkessia (Circassia), as shown by various archaeological finds. The Circassians first emerged as a coherent entity somewhere around the tenth century A.D., although references to them exist much earlier.”

The Circassians had managed through thousands of years of their active existence to stay independent of others. The main political units were clans and territorial communities similar to the ancient Greeks and Romans or the Iroquois confederation. Adygha societies in the sense of communities were elaborately subdivided into the ranks of princes and many other classifications.

“The stratified and militaristic society of the Circassians prevented them from being conquered for thousands of years. In the west, the lands of Circassians were washed by the extremely treacherous waters of the Black Sea, where sailing ships could navigate only for several months during the year. The coast had few good harbors and many malarial swamps”. Various Sharia laws started to be followed by some of the Circassians in the 19th century, while others followed the Khabza (their own laws).

Circassians had always considered defending their homeland as one of their top priority obligations, beside their commitment toward blood feud. All Circassian communities were at certain stage ruled by princes, but in the 17th through 19th centuries the Shapsugh and Natukhwai tribes along the Black Sea coastline had rebelled against their princes and expelled all aristocrats in a series of dramatic revolutions. These democratic Circassians were since then ruled by regular meetings of all citizens that usually took place in sacred groves. The meetings determined communal affairs and elected various magistrates. During wartime, Circassians elected temporary war leaders and formed highly disciplined detachments of young men. All free commoners used to purchase their own weaponry and master their utilization.

In the year 1763, the Tsarist Russian Empire had started its, the longest war in Russian history against Circassians, in order to expand its boundaries into the Black Sea coast-line and ports on the territory of what used to be called Circassia, accomplishing its long-time dream of reaching then controlling the warm waters, Russian Tsarist invading forces and hordes had reached their numbers at critical times to more than one million troops of army soldiers and mercenaries. Circassians had to face disastrous consequences and were subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing that killed half of the Circassian people, in which facts and discreet studies have concluded that the outcome of what had happened to the Circassian nation was a typical genocide.

The Russian occupying authorities had started coordinating the change of the status and nature of the population that led to reflect a demographic reality of the region by deporting the Circassian inhabitants away from their original areas, either to regions beyond the Kuban River or to the Ottoman Empire through coordination between the governments of the Russian and Ottoman Empires. Cossack, Russian and other settlers from different origins were brought in to the area to resettle and replace the original oppressed people that had been either perished or deported.

2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games

Selecting Sochi for the 2014 winter Olympic Games (the most expensive in history) got impact on circumstances with different dimensions, which can be described as the following:

*Circassian national and human concerns are directly connected with the indigenous peoples’ rights and dignity both on the state and world’s levels. That includes the importance of Sochi being the last capital city of Circassia when Circassia and the North Caucasus were totally occupied in 21, May, 1864, in addition to the mass-graves and graveyards of Circassians who resisted the invaders particularly in Krasnaya Polyana site, which is developed to be a tourists’ resort!

*The breach and violation by Russian authorities against world heritage and UNESCO protected sites and forests, which was reported in February of the current year that “Russia Allows Ski Resort in Caucasus World Heritage Site” and pinpoints: “The Russian government is preparing to allow construction of a cluster of ski resorts and roads in the Caucasus region that will alter one of Europe’s few untouched mountain wilderness areas. The development is expected to impact two biosphere nature reserves, two national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and a World Heritage Site.”

* The environmental and ecological damage produced by the industrial toxics and chemical waste originating from the construction works of the Olympic facilities, roads and associated services is beyond repair in such a unique and fascinating natural beauty of Sochi and its surroundings. Environmental activists and “Greenpeace Russia” indicated worries that there is a dangerous increase of concentration of high-risk of toxic elements such as arsenic, phenol and a number of oil derivatives. The environmentalists say “pollution levels have risen dramatically around Sochi since the city was selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.”

A Russian blog in the name of La Russophobe had posted an editorial in March, 2010 in the title of: The Sochi 2014 Madness Must End Now! It criticized the whole Sochi process and mentioned “Russia is recklessly destroying the regional ecology to build the Olympics venues. The United Nations has just issued a scathing report condemning Russian atrocities against the natural environment, and the IOC is now being forced to investigate.”, then added: “allowing Russia to build the Olympic venues in Sochi will do irreversible environmental harm to Sochi. The invaluable Paul Goble documents that harm in today’s issue, and Russian environmentalists on the front lines confirm that the Kremlin is butchering the natural world on the Black Sea coast in order to build venues of absolutely no value to ordinary Russians, at horrifying expense.”

A blog in the name of “Sochi Watch” had posted in May, 2011, a summary of the “current ecological situation in Sochi, from an AFP article I caught on vancouversun.com. Essentially, it covers the basics: that Russia is saying the gargantuan building project to prepare Sochi is “70%” finished and that this will be the “greenest” Olympics ever vs the Ecological Watch on North Caucasus saying that that ain’t exactly the case.” “In general, environmental damage in Sochi is much worse than what we expected in the early stages of construction planning,” said Suren Gazaryan of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus.

No Sochi Committee had published its 14 Reasons for Opposing Sochi 2014 in five languages; explain many worries in regard to holding Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

To end my presentation I would like to read scripts extracted from one of the recently translated documents obtained from the Russian achieves, which were sent to the European Parliament in the year 2006, requesting the recognition of the Circassian Genocide:

*From memoranda of Colonel Charak Feb,, 14th 1864:

I remember how our troops led by General Babic approaching like locusts in the first days of great summer from the beautiful Mountaineers land, and their dense crops – wheat, barley, millet and peaks – flatten under the feet of soldiers, horses and guns, and the villages scattered around us were burning, and the smoke makes the leaves of the surrounding woods formed recently turn to unmoral brown color”.

*Message from Q. Gyeman on February, 13, 1864: “… Abadzykh people naked and poor are turning towards Tuapse, and will constitute a significant burden to us, the fear of the spread of fever or other infectious diseases among them. We treat them in a barbarian way actually, but we have no other way people are amazingly stupid”.

Sochi region, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held, was the center that the parliament of independent and free Circassia

was gathering until 1864. After the Russian invasion it was not only

the Circassians removed from their land but also all their cultural

heritage and even their graves were completely destroyed brutally. Today

in the state museums of Sochi

there is nothing displayed related to Circassians, the autochthonous

people of that land for thousands of years. The real ancient history of Sochi extends to Anatolian Hattis, famous Troy, Meot and Sind Empires is almost forgotten. The Russian written history of Sochi

begins in 1830 with the victories bombardment of Russian Tsar Navy

landing soldiers to the Socha village which was destroyed and renamed by

Russians as Navagiski fortified territory. In the museums of Sochi you can only see the pictures of poor Russian mujicks who were brought from inner Russia then forced to settle to Circassia

after the Circassian Exile and also the Cossacks who even appropriating

the national clothes of the exiled inhabitants shamelessly.

The grandchildren of the massacred and exiled native people of the 2014 winter Olympics city Sochi

and the Krasnodar Kray still live in the countries they were exiled to

but their faces turned towards to their homeland. There are millions of

Circassians who live in the other side of Black Sea in Turkey,

are longing and waiting to repatriate to their motherland. Now in

destroyed Circassian villages, on the lost graves of Circassians, in Circassia,

there are true strangers living there. As a result of a hundred years

of iron curtain they probably don’t even have any idea about the real

owners of those lands. Today Circassia became Russian Riviera where the first and the foremost Mr. Putin having rest, swimming and skiing.

The Russian Federation

governments are still completely blind and deaf to develop any empathy

or to understand the feelings and the longings of the people of the Caucasus.

Moreover the real history is distorted by the Russian state purposely.

To conceal the massacre and the exile of the ninety percent of

Circassians, the reality of the Circassian legendary resistance to

colonial powers for more than one hundred years is obviously ignored.

For that purpose producing the factitious history thesis of 450-th years

voluntary joining together of Circassia’s to Marx’s so called prison of

nations Tsarist Russia is very tragicomic and flippantly far away from

the seriousness of a statehood. Today Russian Federation

government appropriates funds of millions of rubles for spreading that

propaganda to all over the Circassian federal republics (Adigeya,

Karachai, Cherkes and Kabardino Balkaria) by official campaigns and

imposing anniversary ceremonies instead of using that money to improve

the conditions in those underdeveloped republics.

Even more, regardless of the fact that all the criticism and the

protest of the Circassian intellectuals and organizations both in the

Caucasus and in the Diaspora, hasty preparations for 2014 Sochi Winter

Olympics is still pursuing heartily. The geography and the ecological

structure of that beautiful and sacred part of our land are destroyed by

commands of the inconsiderate Russian politicians in Moscow atrociously.

After Circassian exile in 1864 Sochi was emptied from Circassians and the Kbaada Valley

was renamed as Krasnaya Polyana where the heavy construction equipments

are excavating the mountains for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics now.

On the contrary of Russian culture, Circassians are very respectful

even to the death bodies of their enemies. Now the skulls and the bones

of our honorable ancestors are thrown away all over the place by

Russians barbarously. The planned grotesque destroying process of that

one of the most beautiful parts’ of the Caucasus is very meaningful for Circassians.

By all means we, the people of Caucasus, we are not surprised from the Russian behaviour. All the process is running by the commands of the new tsar of Russia, Mr. Vladimir Putin who has the blood of the thousands of children of Caucasus

on his hands, from Chechenya, Daghestan, Beslan... etc. May Mr. Putin

as an inheritor of General Yermalov, General Vorontzov, General

Baryatinski, is not able to understand how his smart decisions cause

pain for Circassians and confronting them. But the time will manifest.

After the glasnost the governors of the Circassian republics in Caucasus

were forced by public to take action to built Circassian Exile

monuments. Although it has been long years, there are still not any

government funds received to finish that project. At that point the

supreme government shows the highest effort indeed. Nobody but only them

can build such an expensive and meaningful genocide monument to our

land other than 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics which must have been the

symbol of the friendship and the brotherhood of people. Despite Sochi is

the Olympics a tool of inane politics but it is also renewing the sorrow

of Circassians in exile. Besides it also intensifies the deep and

legitimate distrust on Russia for hundreds of years. It causes hate.

As the inheritor of one of the most humanist culture in the world, we, the people of the Caucasus, inspite of the past and the present, we don’t want to have any kind of abhorrence towards other people including the Russians.

Still, we can not be unresponsive to the provocative actions of

declining and distorting the thousands of years old real history of our

people and our land. As Circassians, as grandchildren of our ancestors

we have enough pride and honor to not to bear this denial.

Again, we want to urge all the Russian Federation governments and rightminded intellectuals of Russia. Please stop those provocative actions.

Stop Imperialist and GreatRussian (Velikorus) chauvinist behaviour.

As a criminal you can not pretend to be fair, you can not to powerful forever!

You are losing the Caucasus, you are losing all the people of the Caucasus!

"The Circassian-Russian War that lasted between 1763 To 21, May, 1864 ended with the fall of Circassia after fierce fighting, and heroic defensive fight that Circassians took against the Russian invading army which lead to the total occupation of the North Caucasus. The fall of Circassia and other parts of the North Caucasus Region in the hands of the tyrants and savage Tsarist Russian armies that committed genocide and ethnic-cleansing against all invaded nations and amongst them the Circassian nation which was considered the biggest genocide of the nineteenth century, which was forgotten by later history. Millions were terrorized, massacred, displaced, or deported to a Diaspora that is as wide and as large as more than forty countries of the world..."

The Circassian nation lives 90% outside their homeland (Sochi) and

the remaining 10% that lives in the interior of the Caucasus today are

struggling to ensure that some semblance of our language and culture

still exist in our homeland.

What about the 100,000 Circassians living in Syria today due to the

exile placed upon them by the Russian nation? There are hordes of these

people applying to repatriate back to the safety of their homeland and

are being refused by Russian authorities. If given anything, a few

individuals are given visitors visas for 3 months at a time. What

happens when that time is up? Back to Syria to be slaughtered??

This is the legacy of the Sochi Olympics. Fill up the parks with

endangered tigers so that the world thinks it's a "new and improved"

Russia, but keep the actual indigenous people out so they can die in

Diaspora

JOIN US TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE HIDDEN GENOCIDE OF OUR PEOPLE THE CIRCASSIANS NATION

The legacy of these games will be very simple for the indigenous Circassians who once roamed these lands. It will be the absolute acceptance of the international world that it is ok to destroy a nation, kill a culture, build stadiums and party on the mass graves of those who suffered these indignities and ignore the living population today that are assimilating away due to the ethnocide waged against them.

The Circassian nation lives 90% outside their homeland (Sochi) and the remaining 10% that lives in the interior of the Caucasus today are struggling to ensure that some semblance of our language and culture still exist in our homeland.

What about the 100,000 Circassians living in Syria today due to the exile placed upon them by the Russian nation? There are hordes of these people applying to repatriate back to the safety of their homeland and are being refused by Russian authorities. If given anything, a few individuals are given visitors visas for 3 months at a time. What happens when that time is up? Back to Syria to be slaughtered??

This is the legacy of the Sochi Olympics. Fill up the parks with endangered tigers so that the world thinks it's a "new and improved" Russia, but keep the actual indigenous people out so they can die in Diaspora.

You don't have to look too hard to find out that human rights abuses are being committed against both the migrant workers building these structures, and the residents of Sochi who are being forced from their homes.

Added to that the refusal of Mr Chernyshenko to even acknowledge the fact that the Circassian genocide of 1864 took place on the exact spot that these Olympic games are going to be held. In addition, the Sochi 2014 Olympics are a huge security risk for anyone who is planning on attending. There is a low scale war taking place within 50 miles of the site, and the leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Dokku Umarov has threatened to attack Sochi during the games. Why was Mr Chernyshenko asked about these issues?